"Care like this = No foundation status for trust..."

My 77 year old mother injured her ankle when a metal alley gate slammed into the rear of her foot and lacerated it. For 5 days she ignored it and sufdered in oak and when she told me the 1st thing I did was dial 111. The service was great and a GP arranged for antibiotics to be dispensed remotely by a local pharmacy. 4 days later my mother complained of severe pain and couldn't sleep. The ankle was ballooned up and I decided A&E would be a safe bet. It was Christmas week and very busy, the triage nurse was great and we waited 2 hours before being asked ib by the doctor. Seriously , this Dr needs to learn how to interact with patients and learn people skills. There was no empathy and it was a disgrace to the service. After just literally touching her ankle he said there is nothing I can do. I was amazed and asked whether he could consider any imaging to check for damage to tendons, ligaments or bone as my mother struggled to put weight on her foot. The reply was " we are not a 1 stop shop go see your GP as I have no authority to do or con duct any further tests or scans. I was amazed at the attitude and tone of voice. I further questioned this response only for the Dr to raise his voice at which point I stresses for him nit to insult my intelligence and lower his voice. It's only at this point with my reaction hex realised he couldn't fob me off but still no progress. I will be ascertaining a private consultation and if there is any damage that is of concern I will be taking legal action against the trust. It's a real my local hospital is far from achieving good standards of care compared to regional hospitals

Responses

Dear Anonymous Many thanks for your feedback on your experience of our Emergency Department, and thank-you for taking the time to do so. I will make sure your concerns are passed onto the team and can only apologise that you found the attitude and communication of one of our clinicians so lacking. We always strive to deliver safe, personal & effective care- even when we are busy which as you rightly say Christmas week was and I am heartened that you mention the triage nurse as being in your words 'great'. I would appreciate if you could possibly get in touch so that I can help the manager of the ED to narrow down which clinician your contact was with, could you possibly email or call me on the details below? Also, if you would like to talk through your visit to us with one of our Patient Experience team so we can understand the bits of your experience that made this such a poor visit for you we would really value this so that we can try to improve things for every patient visiting our hospitals and services. You can either contact me (Wendy Stobbs) on 01254 734471/ 01254 733704 or email me on wendy.stobbs@elht.nhs.uk. If you would like to share your experience in confidence with an independent organisation please contact Healthwatch BwD on 01254 504985 or info@healthwatchblackburnwithdarwen.co.uk Or if you prefer you can discuss further any concerns you may have about our services with our East Lancashire Hospitals Trust Customer Relations team on 01254 733700 or complaints@elht.nhs.uk who can advise you of your options in raising these concerns further. Many thanks again for commenting, best wishes for the New Year and recovery of your mother's ankle Wendy Stobbs, Patient Experience Facilitator